


Choice

by Nals



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Day One: Philia, Eruhan week, Erwin Smith's POV, F/M, The 14th Commander of the Survey Corps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-21
Updated: 2014-09-21
Packaged: 2018-02-18 05:53:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2337584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nals/pseuds/Nals
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Survey Corps needs to move on. It needs to thrive with good judgment, respect, and faith, all of it from the cadets to its commanding officers, back and forth, give and take.</p>
<p>And the choice isn't easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Choice

**Author's Note:**

> For Day One of Eruhan week. Also posted on my tumblr.

_I’ve decided, I suppose._

_It’s hard, knowing that any choice comes with many consequences, good or bad. My old friend has gone, a formerly prime choice for this, but now not Mike will have been ready for this change._

_We don’t have time for preliminaries and formalities; all we have is a moment._

_It’s all anyone living here will ever have._

_But I’ll take it anyway._

_The Survey Corps needs to move on. It needs to thrive with good judgment, respect, and faith, all of it from the cadets to its commanding officers, back and forth, give and take._

_It should be someone I trust, someone who has worked closely with me, someone who knows me and what I want and what I’ve done to sustain the organization. Someone who’s been with me long enough._

_It should be someone that’s not just my friend. It must be someone I trust more deeply than anyone else._

_But this isn’t just about trust. Any tactician should know who the enemy is. Anyone willing to defend humanity and its greater good must be able to throw away their own humanity. Morality isn’t part of the equation._

_This is all just business._

_Even if everyone else says it should be, I wouldn’t choose Levi. He’s still leaning far too  much into his past, still too brutal to be anything more than just a robot. Even if he was my closest friend, I can’t choose Mike._

_My choice will ring far and wide in the history books, I presume. That is, if the books they’re writing about the Survey Corps are true, not the load of bull that I read as a child...and as an adult._

_That was a part of the reasons why my choice is my choice: that they shouldn’t be afraid of the truth, and instead must speak of it. Must let the people hear of it._

_I know it seems like an odd choice. But it’s the best I’ve got._

_She’s the best I’ve got._   
  
  
  


...the next commander will be Hanji Zoe.

_** You. ** _


End file.
